Mbongeni Ngema (10 May 1955 – 27 December 2023) was a South African playwright, lyricist, composer, director, choreographer, and theatre producer, best known for co-writing the 1981 play Woza Albert!

After the 1950 Group Areas Act, Verulam was reclassified for Indians only, so black Africans were relocated, including the policeman's children, to kwaHlabisa, to live with their grandfather.

In Umlazi, he attended Vukuzakhe High School, but dropped out in his final year and started playing music in local bands.

He joined Gibson Kente's theatre company[3] as a singer and trainee actor,[2] and was exposed to the work of Stanislavski, Peter Brook and Jerzy Grotowski.

[3] He wrote and in 1983 directed a production of the prison musical Asinamali, which, soon after its first performance in South Africa was raided by police and actors arrested.

[7][4] The story is based on a famous rent strike in a Durban township, and toured to New York City, premiering at the Roger Furman Theatre and being nominated for a Tony Award.

[3] The musical has been mounted around the world in various places, including Australia[8][9] with an upcoming 2024 production in South Africa at the National Arts Festival.

The musical won 11 NAACP Image Awards, enjoyed a two-year run on Broadway, toured the US, Europe, Australia, and Japan, and was later adapted into a feature film starring Whoopi Goldberg, Leleti Khumalo, and Miriam Makeba.

[3] Ngema was one of the vocal arrangers for the Disney film The Lion King (1994), for which he earned a multi-platinum award for sales in excess of 6 million copies.

In 2001 during the African Renaissance festival, his name was engraved on the entrance of the City Hall in Durban alongside those of Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Miriam Makeba, and other heroes of the liberation struggle.

[15] Lion of the East was commissioned by Mpumalanga Province in 2009 to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Potato Strike which took place in Bethal in the former Eastern Transvaal, led by Gert Sibande.

[17][18] It also played in Wiesbaden, Germany to excellent reviews, followed by a successful tour of Europe before returning to South Africa in 2000 to run at the Market Theatre, Johannesburg, and The Playhouse in Durban.

[3] In 2020 he released the album Freedom is Coming Tomorrow (Remix) with Emtee, Saudi, Gigi Lamayne, Tamarsha, Reason, Blaklez & DJ Machaba, and Third World,[20] and a single, "Sophia" in the same year.

[21] Ngema's productions, many of which are available on recording platforms and CDs, include:[35][36][3] In 1985 the album S'timela Sase Zola, with its title track of the same name,[38] was one of his biggest hits in South Africa.

[4] Opposition party Economic Freedom Fighters wrote that he was "more than just an artist; he was a cultural icon, and a beacon of hope during some of our darkest times".

In 1996, the planned 12-month run of Sarafina II was cancelled due to corruption allegations, which implicated Ngema as well as the Minister of Health Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

[51] In 2002 Ngema composed a song called "AmaNdiya", which was critical of how the Indian people of KwaZulu Natal were treating its employees and paying them a pittance.

[53] In July 2019, Ngema was removed from his position as co-director of a production of Sarafina following allegations of sexual harassment and intimidation by a cast member.